Debugging View - nRF Connect for VS Code
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Debugging View

The Debugging View appears when you start debugging an application. The following are Views found in the Sidebar while debugging and a brief description of how to use them.

To read more about each debugging View that is not exclusive to the extension debug type, see the VS Code debugging documentation.

Variables

The Variables View shows variables in the current scope and organizes them into local, global, and static sections.

Watch

The Watch View shows the output of variables you have selected to watch.

To start watching a variable:

  1. Click and drag the mouse cursor to highlight the variable in your code.
  2. Right-click and choose Add to Watch.
  3. Click the Start/Continue button in the debugging control bar to watch the debugger go through the code until it stops at a variable breakpoint.
    The output of the code displays in the Watch View.

Call Stack

The Call Stack lists all of the available threads and indicates which ones are running. It also includes the call stack for each thread that is running.

Note

By default, the nrf-connect.debugging.justMyCode setting hides the internal functions of Zephyr and the nRF Connect SDK in Call Stack. Change the setting to false in application settings if you want to see these internal functions.

Breakpoints

When in the debugging mode, you can click on the left side of any line of code in the Editor to set or remove a breaking point.

All breakpoints that you have set in the code will be listed in the Breakpoints View.

Peripherals

The Peripherals View shows a memory map of peripherals from your device's SVD file and displays the values of their registers and fields. This View is unique to the extension's debug type.

When registers and fields are writable, the Edit Register Value button (pencil icon) appears to the right when you hover over their entry in the peripheral tree. Click on this icon to open an input box to enter a value that will be saved to the register. For fields with predefined enums, a list of available options opens from a quick-pick menu at the top of the window.

Peripherals View

Tip

You can access peripherals from the debug console when debugging.